Is a Jaguar/LesPaul out of bounds for this site?
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Fakir Mustache
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vojtasTS29
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Thanks for the comments
Thanks for the nice comments guys. I gotta say that it sounds even better than it looks. For the style of music I play, I am even starting to say that I favor it over my Les Paul, and that is saying a lot. Should have a couple vids and audio files up soon. It's gonna be a hard one to give away. If it weren't for the fact that it's going to my brother, I don't think I could part with it.
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71Smallbox
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I had thought of doing some kind of inlay, or even branding/burning in a logo. I know it's just me, but I really don't like the water slide decals. I have seen the really cool ones out there that people make, but I can't get past my old model building days when I was a kid. I just never have liked stickers or decals. I toyed with the idea of making a branding Iron logo, but just ran out of time. I have also seen some awesome epoxy inlay work. Just ran out of time, and really wanted to get this guitar to my brother.71Smallbox wrote:Nice guitar and nice appaloosas. Are you considering putting a logo on it? Maybe you could do a custom waterslide decal. A member here, HNB, does amazing custom work.
Carving the neck
A couple of people expressed interest in how I went about carving the neck. There are many videos on youtube showing this, but the absolute best I have ever seen was done by a guy named "Fletcher Handcrafted Guitars" on youtube. He did a five video series on building a strat that Is the most helpful I have ever seen. In section three he goes into more detail of marking up the neck to carve it. I will post the video below. He continues in part four and makes a few small changes in neck design, but I have found by using his formula it makes it very easy to get a evenly contoured neck.
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I finally Got two of the three cases that I ordered today. They were on backorder for almost two months. The thired case is not expected in till August or later. They were a perfect fit and I got them for $68 each at Guitar center. Right after I ordered them they disappeared off their site, so I don't know if they will be getting any more.
Here is a few photos of me carving the last two necks in this build. This is using the Fletcher video layout that I posted earlier. Instead of using a rasp for the initial rough shaping I am fortunate enough to have a hand held belt sander that works awesome for this. I will post more photos when I get thru the next step, but here is what I have so far.
Re: Carving the neck
royb8s wrote:► Show Spoiler
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matte30is wrote:Someone man up and get a balloon.
You need to remove the "s" from https:
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2Wxw3YFHsg[/youtube]
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2Wxw3YFHsg[/youtube]
Fran wrote:I love how this place is basic as fuck.
ekwatts wrote:I'm just going to smash it in with a hammer and hope it works. Tone is all in the fingers anyway.
It's like magic when you start to see these things take shape under your own hands. That formula that I posted the video for works so well. It's actually amazing. I got one more neck carved last night. I will try to get some more photos of the in-between process on the next neck. It came out exactly to the spec that I was looking for. It is very slightly under what Warmoth calls a 59 fatback, and a little over what they call a Eric Clapton carve. I personally like a fatter neck and this is the best of the three I've carved so far. Hopefully the next one turns out as well. Now I have to do a little finish sanding and then Tru-oil. I'm still debating staining them a light brown like I dod for the neck on my brothers guitar.
After having carved four necks now, I think the best advice I could give is
1. Follow the pattern outlined by the video that I linked to earlier in this thread. It is by far the easiest and best way I have seen to get a constant straight carve every time. I did move my lines over about 1 mm from what he recommended because I wanted a thicker neck, but the philosophy is right on the button.
2. TAKE YOUR TIME. After you have taken off too much wood it is impossible to put back on, so measure a lot, and slow down and don't get in a hurry. It takes a lot of elbow grease and time, but is totally worth it. Stop and look at what you're doing often so you don't go too far.
I did take some more photo's of the inbetween stuff like I had promised, so here goes.
Once I got the first facets carved in, I took my hand rasp and shaped in the ends fairly close. This is where you want to take your time, and just go to the line.
Next I split the distance on the two facets, and drew two more lines down the length of the neck on each side. Make sure you sight down the length of the neck when you're done, and make sure they are evenly spaced with each other on both sides.
Next I carved between the new lines, and the center line, stopping just short of the center line on each side.
Then take you're rask and clean up the ends as before.
At this point, I took my rasp and just knocked off the facet points that were left, so it started to round out a little.
At this point I use very course strips of sand paper and start working back and forth across the neck, working my way up and down the neck till it rounds out. Make sure that you are not sanding down too far so that it is getting into the rosewood. Also you want to make sure that you are applying even pressure with both hands, and working evenly. Here is where the workout starts, but take lots of breaks, and use your caliper to get the correct thickness measurements you want. It's slow going, but will come out good if you take your time and don't rush things.
When it comes to it, I periodically use my rasp, or sandpaper on a dowel, or this oscilating sander to work in the taper you want for the headstock. I just work on it periodically as I go. Again, just take your time and go slow.
1. Follow the pattern outlined by the video that I linked to earlier in this thread. It is by far the easiest and best way I have seen to get a constant straight carve every time. I did move my lines over about 1 mm from what he recommended because I wanted a thicker neck, but the philosophy is right on the button.
2. TAKE YOUR TIME. After you have taken off too much wood it is impossible to put back on, so measure a lot, and slow down and don't get in a hurry. It takes a lot of elbow grease and time, but is totally worth it. Stop and look at what you're doing often so you don't go too far.
I did take some more photo's of the inbetween stuff like I had promised, so here goes.
Once I got the first facets carved in, I took my hand rasp and shaped in the ends fairly close. This is where you want to take your time, and just go to the line.
Next I split the distance on the two facets, and drew two more lines down the length of the neck on each side. Make sure you sight down the length of the neck when you're done, and make sure they are evenly spaced with each other on both sides.
Next I carved between the new lines, and the center line, stopping just short of the center line on each side.
Then take you're rask and clean up the ends as before.
At this point, I took my rasp and just knocked off the facet points that were left, so it started to round out a little.
At this point I use very course strips of sand paper and start working back and forth across the neck, working my way up and down the neck till it rounds out. Make sure that you are not sanding down too far so that it is getting into the rosewood. Also you want to make sure that you are applying even pressure with both hands, and working evenly. Here is where the workout starts, but take lots of breaks, and use your caliper to get the correct thickness measurements you want. It's slow going, but will come out good if you take your time and don't rush things.
When it comes to it, I periodically use my rasp, or sandpaper on a dowel, or this oscilating sander to work in the taper you want for the headstock. I just work on it periodically as I go. Again, just take your time and go slow.
Well, I got the necks stained and first coat of tru-oil on last night. Had my dad helping me sand and tape up the fretboard. Probably not much to see on these for a while, but will be getting the bodies down off the hooks and start finish sanding and polishing. They have been drying for 6 months now, and should be cured perfectly by now.
Ladies and gentlemen, meet "Lenny Lino". Because of a screw up I had to inlay a walnut shark fin on the front, so what better name than lenny from the Shark Tale movie featuring the voice of Jack Black from School of Rock.
I just set the neck on to see what it would look like. I still need to level and dress the frets and install tuners. This part of the build should be much faster since I have most of the parts made, and ready to install.
I just set the neck on to see what it would look like. I still need to level and dress the frets and install tuners. This part of the build should be much faster since I have most of the parts made, and ready to install.